Xenosaga Walkthrough/Episode II
Walkthrough Index * Page 1: Prelude To Battle (Where Were YOU During The Miltian Conflict??) * Page 2: The Great Escape (Where Are The Police, Anyway??) * Page 3: MOMO's Subconcious Domain (Do Realians Dream Of Electric Sheep?) * Page 4: Behemoth Space Ship Dammerung (Damn Dammerung) * Page 5: Messing With Ormus (Do You Guys Just Have Some Pamphlets Or Something?) * Page 6: The Tragic Tale Of Old Miltia (What The HELL Just Happened??) * Page 7: The Omega System (New, From Nintendo!) * Page 8: The Game After The Game Part 1 (A Completionist's Burden) * Page 9: The Game After The Game Part 2 (Xenosaga Episode II.V) * GS Campaign Part 1 * GS Campaign Part 2 Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose Halloooo everyone! It's me! BlackAlbedo! I'm very excited to present to you today my Walkthrough for Xenosaga Episode II. I only had to muddle my way through the first game to finally get here, but muddle we did, together, and now you need to know how to get through this strange, new installment of the series, so you've come to the best! I will only say this once, so get it right the first time. If you must edit my work, edit away, just please do not change the opinions or the main idea of what I'm saying. I appreciate constructive criticism. Constructively criticize away, please. Make good use of the Talk pages, too! Message me directly on my Talk page if you would like to suggest ways I can improve my Walkthrough advice or point out anything I missed or whatnot. Anyway, I love this game, so let me talk about the basics, and we'll start rolling this bitch out. I'm going to copy and paste directly from my Xenosaga Episode I Walkthrough's introduction, as all of this information is standard Xenosaga protocol. Xenosaga Episode II is a fairly standard RPG. It has characters whose lives you meddle with, it has traditional turn-based battles with some cool tweaks, and it has a menu screen, to which you will refer frequently. If you've played any Final Fantasy, you can grasp Xenosaga's functionality pretty quickly. The game is played by running your on-screen character from point to point triggering various events, messing with options in the menu when you need to, and transitioning to and successfuly completing battles which will occur when you make contact with on-screen enemies or at certain parts in the story. That's all there is to it. Oh, and if you want to watch the entire cinematics (which I highly suggest you should, you could get lost pretty quick if you don't) you should remember to play this only when you have a couple of hours to spare or sacrifice. Hey, I'm not gonna tell you how to live your life... well... technically since this is a walkthrough, I WILL be telling you how to live your life, but if you need to turn off your PS2 and get back to real life all of a sudden, it's probably wise to skip the cinematics, find a save point, and get out there. You can always watch them on Youtube later. Gameplay / How To Play Xenosaga Episode II Well, well, well. Did somebody forget how to play since finishing the last game? Is that why you're reading this section now? It's OK, I understand. Here. You can receive of my generosity and relearn how to play Xenosaga by following my instructions. To interact with objects/people/aliens and to confirm decisions or make commands you need to know where your Circle Button is, because that's the button that does all of that. It looks like this . If you want to generally cancel out of certain menus, look real hard for the X Button. It looks like this . To open the main menu while running around, locate the Triangle Button ( ) at the top of the right side of your controller and press it. When you want to blow stuff up with your mystic-future-space-powers, and you have the object targeted, press the purple Square Button ( ) in order to obliterate your target. You may also use the and Buttons to change between multiple targets. Holding while moving will make your character walk, which can help you sneak past some enemies from time to time. In battle, the controls are thus: , , and are now your attacks. will bring you to a battle menu where you can select STOCK in order to stash more moves for your character to execute per turn, ETHER if you want to use various skills your characters have learned, ITEM (I'm not explaining this one), MOVE if you want to change your position on the battlefield, DOUBLE to use Double Techs (new to Episode II), or one of the best new features of Episode II CHANGE, which will allow you to switch party members IN BATTLE. Very nice! KOS-MOS should also have a SPECIAL option she can use under the correct circumstances. and will change the information displayed over your moves in case you need to remember if a move is Piercing or Fire or what have you. and will bring up your available Boost options. will pause your game outside of battle, and you can even pause cinematics in order to shake a piss once in a while. Or press to skip them entirely if you're one of those people who dislikes movies or anime or the particular combination of both. Now you know how to navigate the various stages of gameplay. Lets discuss basic strategy, shall we? Battle OK! You've got into a fight! Just CALM DOWN! I'm going to talk you through this, just stay calm. Take your time to think, since it's turn-based and nothing will happen until you make a move. I will make a valiant effort to explain specific combat scenarios and their accompanying strategies when we get there, but for now you will need to accept that from time to time you will need to make your own decisions. Here's how you make the good ones: I don't think I need to lecture you on rock-paper-scissors, just learn what is weak to what and use those attacks. The real finesse of battle comes from using Boost wisely and often. Boost accumulates by dealing damage to enemies, and will stop at 3 levels standardly. You'll see in the bottom-right corner of the battle screen that it tells you which characters are going to move next. Cutting in front of your enemy by utilizing Boost (Hold / and press , , or can often save you from a world of hurt, if you can finish off the foe before its next turn. However, using Boost in excess can leave you up shit creek without a paddle in some of the longer fights. It is wise to conserve your Boost for when you know the shit is about to hit the fan. Boost changes in Episode II though. Instead of each character having their own Boost gauge that empties after every battle, there is one Boost gauge for the whole party which remains from fight to fight!!! There is also an enemy Boost gauge which is displayed under the turn order, which also carries over from fight to fight. Remember that when preparing for big fights. There are also lots of attacks and Skills which affect Boost levels in battle. You may have full Boost, but then you'll get hit with some move that will drain your Boost gauge and give it to the enemy! That always sucks, but you can't avoid it. You have been warned. One final Boost tactic that I consider very wise to follow involves timing your Boosts so that you finish your enemy off when the Point Bonus Event Slot is showing. Just left of the character turn window you'll see a small window that keeps rotating its images every turn. That's the Event Slot. The picture that looks like a large gold coin is the Point Bonus, and if an enemy dies while that is showing, you'll get either x2, x4, or x10 (!) Tech, Skill, and Ether points after battle for that one enemy. Get this every time you can manage to. It has a HUGE effect to get x4 or x10 on Bosses. By the way, the other pictures are a firey looking one, and a Boost ring. Boost ring obviously gives you more Boost that turn, and the firey one increases critical hit chance, for you AND for your enemies. Watch out for that. Episode II introduces an addition to the Event Slot, the Random Event Slot. It sits on the Event Slot where the empty one used to be. It can still be empty, but it might also be either ETHER (Ether damage and healing increased 50%), TURN CANCEL (if anyone gets hit with this up and their turn is slotted to come up soon, they will be dropped and miss that turn), or REVERSE BOOST (gives your enemies Boost when you attack them, or vice-versa). Now you always need to monitor the Event Slot!!! Episode II shuns the A.G.W.S. of its predecessor, and introduces E.S. Craft to us! Yay! E.S. are soooooooooooooooo much better than A.G.W.S., and much easier to type out. E.S. are unique in that they act as their own characters, not as tools. What I'm saying is, they gain experience and levels and have their own moves and stats that they use! Isn't that cool?! It becomes just a little more to think about, but you'll find that your E.S. Crafts will stay up to date if you just use them regularly in the scenes when they get brought out. There are E.S. stages later in the game that will allow you to make them really powerful anyway. Remember to always watch the turn order, it's critical to successful strategy. As for actual battle mechanics, Episode II changes the game a LOT. Your strategies will now largely consist of AIR'ing or '''DOWN'ing the enemy and timing your Boosts to make attack chains so you may fully take advantage of an 'AIR'ed or 'DOWN'ed enemy before they can land or get back up WHILE remembering weaknesses and strengths (rock paper scissors). It may be tough to wrap your mind around at first, but I will explain in detail the first few times we do this to help you understand. You will start to get it when you see the large amounts of damage we do to incapacitated foes. Before you can '''AIR or DOWN a foe however, you must "Break" said foe. This consists of using a precise pattern of moves to Break your enemy's defense. Say the enemy's Break pattern is "BC". You must then use an attack which strikes the B-Zone, then the C-Zone, and your enemy will be in the BREAK state. From here, if your character has more moves, you may lay into the foe with moves that AIR or DOWN to move it to those positions, or you may just use more regular attacks for increased damage. Some Breaks are longer, and require 2 characters to participate in order to BREAK a foe. Example: "ABBC" is the pattern. Start with character 1 doing "AB" and immediately Boost character 2, who will finish the pattern with "BC" making "ABBC", then character 2 may lay into the foe. You don't have to Boost if character 2 has the next turn, but it's usually a good idea if you CAN Boost, since enemies tend to interrupt with Counter-Boosts and the like. Practice makes perfect. Also, Break Patterns will look like ???? until you figure out what it is, then they will be stored in memory (as long as you've unlocked the Level 1 Skill "Memory"). You'll know a hit is correct if the letter is displayed in red instead of white as you make your moves. As a final note, Skills and Ethers have changed greatly in this game. Everyone now has access to all of the Skills and Ethers via a Skill purchasing menu. Throughout the game you will unlock more Skills and Ethers by finding secret keys. Ethers no longer have a Weight, they just go straight onto your menu when you unlock them. This allows a lot more versatility in forming your party, as you will want several characters to focus on other skills at first. Eventually, everyone can have everything. There are also VERY nice bonuses to be found in this menu. I have retained the color coding method from my Episode I walkthrough so as to highlight important items and information. REGULAR OL' ITEMS, KEY ITEMS, SEGMENT ADDRESSES, CHARACTER EQUIPMENT, E.S. EQUIPMENT, LOVE. I hope I've laid it out well enough by this point. Lets play the damn game, eh? Walkthrough Index * Page 1: Prelude To Battle (Where Were YOU During The Miltian Conflict??) * Page 2: The Great Escape (Where Are The Police, Anyway??) * Page 3: MOMO's Subconcious Domain (Do Realians Dream Of Electric Sheep?) * Page 4: Behemoth Space Ship Dammerung (Damn Dammerung) * Page 5: Messing With Ormus (Do You Guys Just Have Some Pamphlets Or Something?) * Page 6: The Tragic Tale Of Old Miltia (What The HELL Just Happened??) * Page 7: The Omega System (New, From Nintendo!) * Page 8: The Game After The Game Part 1 (A Completionist's Burden) * Page 9: The Game After The Game Part 2 (Xenosaga Episode II.V) * GS Campaign Part 1 * GS Campaign Part 2 Category:Xenosaga Episode II Category:Walkthrough